The Ins And Out Of Affirmations

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A Guest Post by Tara Bliss

Affirmations excite me. I could talk about them all day. I’m almost incapable of giving advice to my peers and coaching clients without mentioning the transformative power of affirmations. Crafting them is a spiritually creative exercise which pays off, big time, and now that I’ve reaped the benefits of pimping out my life with some serious positive mojo first hand, I don’t know what I ever did without them.

This blog post is all about positive affirmations. It’s important for us all to realise that negative affirmations are just as powerful and positive ones, but if you’re anything like me, you’re all about zest, vibrance, fizziness. Positive affirmations are for you.

The Low Down

The Law Of Attraction is a gargantuan force, capable of giving us exactly what we think about (whether we like it or not). The thing is, few of us know how to really utilise this Universal energy and transform ourselves into magnets for love, beauty, abundance and creativity. It’s not about faking it till you make it- it’s about believing. In a nutshell, you get more of what you already have, not more of what you want, so the trick is to regularly recite (while at the same time genuinely believing) that you already are as loving/beautiful/abundant/creative as you wish you were.

1. Keep It Present

Ditch the words ‘want’, ‘wish’ and ‘hope’ when it comes to your affirmations. These words keep your dreams and desires at arms reach, in the future. For example: ‘I want to be more creative’ is not an affirmation that’s going to bring you the best results. Take your goal, and flip it around to make it present and powerful, and it becomes ‘The Universe supplies me with infinite creativity every single day. My inspiration converts to creativity and I make beautiful things happen’. See the difference?

2. Be Specific

Sometimes, instead of keeping my affirmations present, I’ve put a specific time line on them. This has worked for me all through me life, and I’m sure it has with you too. When you believe in something, and you can truly see yourself already there, already doing it, and you know exactly how it feels, it becomes your reality, effortlessly. Here’s some example of how time-framed affirmations have worked for me.

‘When Glen and I get back from Japan, we’re going to go fruit picking out in the country for a few months’. Check! Did it, and had a beautiful time living the simple life.

‘I’m tired of this job, I’m ready to accept a job in adventure tourism’. Check! When I was living in Queenstown, New Zealand, I manifested my dream job working for AJ Hackett Bungy (and it’s still one of the best jobs I’ve held to this day).

Some current time-specific affirmations I’m working on.

‘In 2014, 100% of my income will be generated by my own business’.

‘After this season at Mount Buller, we’re moving to Burleigh Heads’.

3. Be Even More Specific

‘After this season at Mount Buller, we’re moving to Burleigh Heads. Our apartment is going to have an ocean view and will be walking distance from my workplace’. Powerful stuff. I can already see myself leaning over our balcony, admiring the surfers in the morning sun. I can feel the sea breeze in my hair and taste my cup of tea. I can visualise myself grabbing my phone and wallet, heading downstairs and walking to the markets on Sunday.

4. Cultivate The Emotions

From what I’ve noticed, the biggest issue with creating affirmations is our lack of belief (we can blame our pesky egos for that). I’ve spoken to a few young women who want what they want, but they don’t know how they’re going to get there- they don’t believe in themselves. And that’s cool, I understand, but here’s the answer: from the wise soul of Danielle LaPorte- ‘How do you want to feel?’

Say for example, you want clear skin, but for the life of you, you can’t stand the thought of staring yourself in the mirror and declaring ‘I have the most beautiful skin possible’- it makes you feel fraudulent. But by virtue of your imagination, you have to time travel to a moment when your skin IS beautiful and clear and glowing, and you must cultivate the emotions and feelings that result from reaching that goal. Confidence, stunning, joyous. Be there, in that moment, with your flawless skin, all the while actively feeling these emotions, and then matter of factly state: ‘I have beautiful skin. It is constantly healing. I support my skin every day with the cleanest diet possible. I love my skin’.

5. Practice Generosity

The more you give, the more you get back. Your daily affirmations can be crafted in such a way that the people around you benefit from them just as much as you do. I’ve put a few examples below of affirmations I use to help me become more useful and loving to others.

6. Release. Let Go. Tomorrow is a New Day

You’ve declared your affirmations to the Universe, you’ve kept it present, you’ve been specific, you’re willing to serve and you’ve cultivated the emotions of the end result. Now, you’ve just got to let them go. You’ve done your part, you’ve released that energy out into the world, so cut the cord and joyously get on with your day. Tomorrow is a brand new opportunity to re-recite your affirmations.

Affirmations I’m Currently Rocking (which I invite you to rock out also: my gift to you!)

I have beautiful, radiant skin, strong digestion and perfect circulation.
I share my love around; it is not sacred.
I change the lives of others, by being of service.
I love myself big time, right here, right now. Loving myself attracts more love into my life.
I choose love, happiness, kindness, compassion.
I enjoy paying my bills. I feel so blessed to be this abundant.
I give to charity and the Universe gives back to me.
I am a genius and I actively look for the genius in others.
I am exactly where I need to be.
I own a successful, deeply fulfilling business.
My service is rewarded with infinite abundance.
Creativity gushes through my veins.
I am always learning new things. I have a child’s mind that’s innocently fresh and innovative.
I am a passionate, inspiring, vibrant woman.
I trust in the Divine.

And a reminder- to daily look into the mirror- right in your own eyes and say ‘I Love You’ (warning: there may be tears!).

Tara Bliss is easily excitable and regularly marvels at the world around her. A total affirmation nerd; she’s a self-taught spiritual empowerment coach and a mind-body-spirit blogger at Such Different Skies. Her life purpose involves illuminating confidence, inspiration and vibrant health in others by virtue of her own life experiences. You can catch her meditating over her crystal collection and guzzling green juices. She’s also a recovering tomboy and is even occasionally caught wearing lipstick.

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Exciting news for you: Tara is now offering a GREAT health coaching deal right now. So much value, be quick! Read all about it here if you are ready to be inspired, and ready to improve your life!

Do you use affirmations in your life? If so, what are your favourite affirmations? Share them with us, and declare them to the Universe in the comments below!

It’s so funny that this post mentions skin… This is going to sound rather strange, but i think I first figured out that thoughts-affect-things back in high school when I had really bad skin. Sometimes I would get really upset by my pimples, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it and dwelling on it. I eventually realised that this negative focus actually made my skin worse. As dumb and crazy-woo-woo as that sounds. But it’s true. When I went to bed ‘feeling’ happy thoughts about my skin, I would wake up and it would be far better in the morning than if I went to bed feeling really shit about it. So from then on I would try and send a ‘happy’ message to the particular little pustule that was giving me grief, and I swear to the sky, it worked…

Oh how I love this! I’m a huge believer in affirmations and use them regularly with my coaching clients! This is a really great list of how to approach and embody them which I’ll be sharing! Thank you thank you!

Love this post Tara (and thanks for hosting her Jia Ni)! I always struggle to keep up with my affirmations and to feel authentic when saying them. I like your advice about creating very specific ones just for you. Definitely going to give it some thought! xx

Thanks Kim! Tara is anyone’s dream guest poster – she’s amazing! Yup, I find that repeating them a few times daily starts to make them feel authentic, and remove any doubt. I started saying affirmations like “I love and approve myself” with a bit of doubt, but now when I say it it feels totally natural and true – because it is! XO

The most powerful part of this was reading about affirmations for skin. While I’ve used affirmations in other parts of my life I’ve never thought of applying it to my skin. Maybe it’s because the underlying belief with eczema is that my skin will never be fully radiant. Wow – didn’t realise that one was lurking there! So now I’m off to the bathroom mirror to look at my skin and stare in my eyes (affected by eczema too!) and affirm “I have healthy, smooth, soft skin.”

I started off using affirmations about health – but I love that Tara mentions skin because it is specific and our skin is so important and a signal of how healthy we are! You go girl! :) And thanks for dropping by! xx

Wonderful post Tara and thank you Jia for having Tara on. I absolutely think affirmations are extremely helpful however you are right, it is all about the feeling. I walk my clients through this everyday as it is not only about saying the affirmation but truly believing in its possibility and FEELING it. My current favorite is,”I have everything I need to create contented joy in this moment.” xo